Middle East Crude Steel Production Skyrocketed by 28% in September

BEIJING (Scrap Monster): According to monthly production data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) for the month of September, Asia, Africa and the Middle East regions reported significant rise in crude steel production. Among them, Middle East recorded the highest year-on-year jump of over 28% in production volumes. The output by the African and Asian regions recorded 15.0% and 5.1% jump respectively during the month.

Asia

All countries in the Asian region reported year-on-year increase in production in September. The world’s largest producer, China reported 5.3% jump in output. The country produced 71.827 Mt, as compared with 68.200 Mt in the same month a year before.

The crude steel output by Pakistan surged higher by 64.3%. Vietnam too recorded 33.8% jump in output. The other two countries to report double-digit gains in steel production were Thailand and Taiwan. The output by these countries has increased by 17.2% and 12.3% respectively.

India’s crude steel output totaled 8.200 Mt, marginally higher by 1.9% when compared with the output of 8.044 Mt in September 2016. Japan too reported 2% jump in output. The country produced 8.623 Mt. South Korean output jumped higher by 2.8% to total 5.880 Mt. It must be noted that South Korea had produced only 5.717 Mt during September last year.

The following table provides cumulative crude steel output for the initial nine-month period of the current year in comparison with the previous year.

Note: Output in thousands of tonnes

Africa

Egypt produced 568,000 tonnes of crude steel, rising significantly by 19.6% when compared to 475,000 tonnes production achieved during Sep ‘16. Libya’s crude steel output skyrocketed by over 71% year-on-year from 15,000 tonnes in September 2016 to 25,000 tonnes in the same month this year. South African crude steel output increased by 9.0% to total 556,000 tonnes during the month.

The following table provides cumulative crude steel output for the first nine months in 2017 in comparison with the corresponding period in 2016.

Note: Output in thousands of tonnes 

Middle East

The total crude steel production by Iran during September 2017 was 2.230 Million tonnes, significantly higher by over 40% in comparison with the Sep ’16 production of 1.588 Million tonnes. Qatar produced 234,000 tonnes of crude steel, marginally higher by 4.0% when compared to 225,000 tonnes production achieved during September last year. Meantime, Saudi Arabia’s crude steel output has declined marginally by 1.1% over the previous year. The total crude steel production by the UAE during Sep ’17 was 239,000 tonnes, notably higher by 24.0% in comparison with the Sep ’16 production of 192,000 tonnes. 

The following table provides cumulative crude steel output during Jan-Sep ’17 as compared with the corresponding nine-month period in 2016.

  (Note: Output in thousands of tonnes)